The Black Thread, Ep 1 | Meet the Norwegians

The coal, utilities, and transportation industries have all mounted efforts to stop governments from regulating emissions or transitioning to cleaner energy. In this episode we look at how those efforts took shape around the world, and what tactics they used to block progress. Jen Schneider, at Boise State University and Gregory Trencher, at Kyoto University, join us to walk through the peer-reviewed research on these efforts. You can now download a FREE copy of the book Climate Obstruction: A Global Survey here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this first episode of The Black Thread, we meet the Norwegians and explore how social norms and cultural values shape their identity as a good, caring, and nature-loving people. We also learn what happens when those values come into conflict with the reality of Norway’s outsized impact on climate change, and discover how and why oil influences peoples’ response to this dilemma.  For more information and references: https://communicatingclimatechange.com/the-black-thread Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There’s no avoiding it: Things feel pretty bleak. To witness venture-capital-fueled AI domination, democracy’s steady drift toward authoritarianism, state-sanctioned genocide, and, of course, the collapse of one climate boundary after another, is to encounter a profound, at times overwhelming, sense of despair. But what if the path forward lies in accepting, rather than resisting, this despair? In his new book, Learning to Live in the Dark: Essays in a Time of Catastrophe, climate activist and journalist Wen Stephenson argues that the only way to confront the crises of our time is to meet this despair head-on—to see it for what it is, to feel it, and to accept what it means about where we are and where we must go. In this episode, Wen discusses how he's dealt with his own climate despair and how we can all "live into this era of climate and political and social catastrophe…while holding on to our humanity.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Climate obstruction isn’t just something the fossil fuel industry does, but they’ve certainly spearheaded and masterminded a lot of efforts. In this ep, an academic (Kristoffer Ekberg, from the University of Lund in Sweden), a nonprofit researcher (the legendary Kert Davies, of the Center for Climate Integrity), and a journalist (Geoff Dembicki, global managing editor of DeSmog) walk us through what we know so far about those efforts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks to reporter Adam Lowenstein, we'll be bringing you lots more interviews with smart authors writing about climate, policy, democracy, and power. This week, Adam talks to Casey Michel, author of Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World. Michel also recently wrote a fascinating piece in The Atlantic, applying what he learned in researching and writing the book to what he's seeing during the second Trump administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Killing an offshore wind farm that's nearly complete makes no sense, even for a climate denier who thinks windmills kill whales. In this episode, political economist Mark Blyth walks Drilled reporter Royce Kurmelovs through the strategy behind it all, what he calls "carbon dominance." You can read a story about the impacts on our site: drilled.media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The kings of the manosphere love to talk about “integrating” a man’s warrior and civilized self, but how about integrating men, and new ideas of masculinity, into the climate movement instead? What does that look like, who’s doing it, and where are there opportunities for repair and progress?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this eye-opening episode of Carbon Bros, we hear from special guest Vivian Taylor, a researcher on both trans rights and climate policy, on the shocking connections between fossil billionaires and anti-trans campaigns. Turns out, it’s easy to distract people with genital inspectors so you don’t have to deal with methane leakage inspectors. Amy and Vivian break down the disturbing overlap between anti-trans, anti-climate, and other right-wing movements, as well as the critical need for unity in tackling these pressing issues. It’s a powerful conversation that uncovers the hidden networks funding social division and environmental degradation. Don’t forget to join us next week for the final episode of Carbon Bros! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The verdict comes through, more than doubling the damages, at a time when repression of protest is accelerating in the U.S., but somehow Energy Transfer's lawyers claim it is a victory for free speech. As the trial and our season wrap up, we take a look at what this verdict means for Indigenous rights, climate activists, and the decline of individual free speech rights in the U.S. as corporate free speech rights expand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stop listening to hysterical Swedish teenagers and start listening to reasonable men! Some dudes do have solutions to the climate crisis; they just don’t involve messy interpersonal stuff, changing their lifestyles, or reorganizing the global economy. From techno quick fixes and visions of abundance to carbon capture and geoengineering to doomerism and colonies on Mars, we’ll take a look at how gendered notions of the climate crisis have led to individualized, “masculine” approaches to solving it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices